


Tall and Taller

by LadyRavenEye



Category: Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2018-02-19 15:15:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2393141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyRavenEye/pseuds/LadyRavenEye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bit of fluff for TP femslash week</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tall and Taller

It was rare, so rare, for Kel to look up at another woman. A few of the Scanran refugees she had refused to turn away from Haven, sure, but they were built big in the North. There was a half Carthaki, half Yamani Shang warrior—the Gryffin—who was rumored to approach seven feet tall, but Kel had never met her. Even Ada, who Kel could not think about without blushing, (she laughed when they stood back to back in bare feet, and squeezed Kel’s hand) had moped when Neal declared Kel the taller, even though Kel insisted they were the same height. 

Yet here she stood, looking upward into twinkling brown eyes.

 _Mischievous_ , Kel thought. _And beautiful_ , a treacherous part of her whispered.

Before Ada, would she have thought that?

Kel blinked, and for the first time in a long time, eschewed a knight’s bow for a lady’s curtsy. 

“Oh, Kel, none of that.”

Uline of Hannalof grasped Kel’s shoulder, and a feeling like lightning shot down her arm. She had not even noticed until that moment that Uline’s right sleeve ended in a neatly pinned configuration at her elbow. Uline saw where her eyes went.

“Funny, isn’t it? You’re the knight, but I am the one maimed in battle.”

“My lady…”

“Uline,” the woman said firmly. “If you count a botched assassination attempt as a battle, I suppose.”

“Uline,” Kel said. She wanted to gulp, the name tasted so good on her lips. She wanted to say it over and over. She wanted to kiss the woman in front of her. Instead, she made her face Yamani smooth, and said, “I… did not know there was an attempt on Thayet’s life.”

Uline waved her hand dismissively. “It was hardly organized, or Ephie would have caught him before it happened.” Uline named the mage that rode with the Queen’s Ladies. “I was just unlucky enough to see the bastard in the trees, and if I were a Shang, I would have caught the gods blasted arrow instead of having it go clean through my hand.”

“What of Thayet’s healers?”

“The hole was too big, the poison too strong. They couldn’t save it.”

“I am sorry, my Lady.”

“Uline!”

“Uline,” Kel murmured.

“It’s really all right, because now I can sport this fetching haircut and no one complains.” Uline grinned and shook her head so the short black fringe flopped in front of her face. For a moment, the wolfish look disappeared, and she asked Kel, “Do… do you like it?”

It took a lot of willpower for Kel not to lift her hand and run her fingers through the inches-long curly hair on Uline’s head. She clasped her hands behind her back.

“You are beautiful,” she said. “I mean, your hair—it’s very—“ Kel was losing composure, trying to find the words where usually she never had problems. She thought of how Ada would react, with a high pitched giggle and a peck on Kel’s nose, but Uline’s laugh was lower and more melodious, and it was such a wonderful sound Kel forgot to be embarrassed. 

“Come, Kel,” said Uline, hoisting Kel’s arm and resting her hand in the crook between forearm and bicep—the wrong side, Kel thought dizzily, but with two noblewomen, does that matter? “The Queen will be here later tonight, and I want to hear all about your adventures since you were a little page.”

“No one has called me little for a long time,” she said, and Uline laughed again, sending shots of lightning through Kel’s whole body.

“Well, get used to it,” said Uline. “Because I could get used to looking down at you.”


End file.
